For the  15th edition of the Frieze Art Fair in London we pick up some highlights amongst the 160 international galleries. You still have a few days to enjoy the Frieze sculpture park (covered here) featuring 23 international artists hosted in Regent’s Park.

Often underrepresented in the art world, a need for rebalancing has been recognised by Frieze itself this year and a specially curated section showcases work by feminist artists from the 1970s and 1980s.  Andrea Bowers’ neon-glowing installation at Andrew Kreps, declares: My Body My Choice, Her Body Her Choice.

Jeff Koons Gazing Ball sold for £2 millions at David Zwirner Gallery during the VIP opening.

Gallerie Perrotin dedicated its booth solely to Kaws paintings and sculptures (including the sculpture park)

For their Frieze Project, Lucy & Jorge Orta invite you to become part of a collective world citizenship with their passport project Antarctica World Passport Office. At their deconstructed wagon-esque installation – actually made from a customised ex-army trailer and various army surplus – you’re asked to symbolically transfer your individual national identity to receive access to the no borders community. There are only 5,000 passports available during the fair, so be quick to join the new nation.

Hauser & Wirth created an unconventional booth featuring solely on works made in bronze with artefacts on loan from various British museums and institutions, together with loans from private collections. Visitors can discover sculptures by the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Henry Moore and David Smith and more.

At Frieze Masters, amongst the highlights are works by Lichtenstein and Jean Michel Basquiat ( in parallel of the current retrospective at Barbican ‘Boom for Real’).

But the main stand out was the recreation of Peter Blake studio, that brings together not only works for sale by the artist but also elements from his personal collection of paraphernalia that hugely informs his practice.

View the full set of pics here

Frieze Art Fair
5-8 October 2017
Regents Park London

The 400 square meters of the contemporary art space of the Pavillon Carré has been transformed by the duo of artists Lek and Sowat. Invited by Elise Herszkowicz from Art Azoï, they have created immersive installations from the floors to ceilings. Through their multidisciplinary approach both artists invite the viewer into their urban, experimental and subversive universe through ephemeral wall paintings, stained-glass windows made of urban furniture, installations built from the ruins of the previous exhibition, as well as photos from their practice at Mausolee (see here), Lasco project at Palais de Tokyo (see here) or residency at Villa Medicis and movies like Traces Directs (watch here) which is part of the permanent collection at Centre Pompidou.

By investing this new place, they continue to push the boundaries of traditional graffiti and mix their architectural abstractions. Impressive and captivating, their work fits perfectly into the history of the Pavillon Carré and surroundings as it offers great art accessible to all.  For street artists, accustomed to urban exploration (Urbex), industrial ruins and illegal interventions, Lek and Sowat raise questions about the paradoxes of the institutionalization of urban art and its legitimity. Is having a self-taught and independent art practice enough to constitute a “circonstance attenuante” (mitigating circumstance)?  Through this multidisciplinary exhibition, Lek and Sowat invite us to reflect on the place of street art in art history.

In parallel the prolific duo experimented with the techniques of the silver print for Polka Magazine to reinvent the works of another duo, Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre (published in Polka # 33). They also produced a large fresco of interpellation by Emmanuel Macron from the images of twelve photographers (Issue Polka # 38)

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View the full set of pics here

Lek & Sowat – Circonstances Attenuantes
Pavillon Carré de Baudouin
Until 22 July
121 rue de Ménilmontant, 75020 Paris

Spanish artist Okuda is brightening up a nineteen storey building in Paris by giving it a contemporary makeover. Using more than 450 spraycans, Okuda painted one of Europe’s tallest murals at 50 metres (164 feet) high by 15 meters wide during less than five days.

‘The City of Paris and Mona Lisa are intricately linked, so it was a natural choice’. The street artist wanted to pay tribute to the French culture and to the iconic portrait at the Musee du Louvre.

Internationally known Okuda is a surrealist pop artist with a psychedelic universe, his subjects are very colourful and this artwork is no exception.

With zebra hair and a rainbow cubic face, the reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, also known as La Gioconda, depicts a standing woman in a starry sunset, with a bird on her shoulder and carrying a handbag. The handbag is decorated with repetitive patterns, reminiscent of a famous French luxury brand, as a nod to Paris as capital of Luxe and Fashion.
The multi-cultural-skinned woman is illustrated by different types of colourful fabric from dots, stripes and stars like different parts of the world.
While we have seen many reinterpretations of this famous portrait, it is also very unusual to see the Gioconda standing, we discover here the rest of her body with curvy shapes, standing in rainbow waters.
We were lucky to join Okuda on his cherry picker during the painting process, so here are some pics or the work in progress.

This modern colourful portrait celebrates Paris with culture, luxe and fashion but also its population from a multicultural background and diversity.

The project in collaboration with By Night Gallery and Ink and Movement was inaugurated by Jerome Coumet, Major of the XXIII District in presence of many local residents.

Photos credit: Butterfly Art News
View the full set of pics here

Come back again soon for our coverage about Okuda‘s Parisian solo show ‘ The dream of Mona Lisa’  at Adda & Taxie Gallery running until the end of August at 35 rue Matignon.